Shooting for the NHL, trying to help kids ... and keeping an eye out for Sasquatch

Milwaukee Admirals defenseman Matt Donovan led the team in scoring in the first month of the season and played his way into a contract with the Nashville Predators, the Admirals' NHL parent club.(Photo: Scott Paulus / Milwaukee Admirals)

When Donovan hit the ice for three games with the New York Islanders in April 2012 he became the first Oklahoma native to skate at that level. Donovan played in 69 games over three seasons with the Islanders through the spring of 2015 and has been working since to get back to stay.

The road has taken him from Rochester of the AHL to the Swedish club Frolunda and then back to North America and the AHL, where his play early this season with the Admirals has earned him a contract with their NHL parent, the Nashville Predators.

So now Donovan is as close as he’s been in years to a career he couldn’t have imagined growing up in the Oklahoma City suburb of Edmond.

“It’s crazy,” Donovan said of the notion a kid from the Great Plains – even one whose dad ran an ice rink, who learned to skate almost as soon as he learned to walk – could grow up to play at the levels he has.

“Growing up, I didn’t see many guys leaving and making it,” Donovan said after a practice at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena. “There were a couple of guys that left to play NCAA college, USHL (juniors), a couple of minor-league pro guys, but no one to ever go overseas or play in the NHL.

“I didn’t have that many people to look up to and say, ‘Oh, wow, I can do that; that’s my plan too.’ I never really had that in my mind. It was, ‘Let’s play hockey today and get better.’ ”

That’s not to say Oklahoma City doesn’t have some hockey history.

Minor-league teams have played there on and off from 1965-2015, and it’s been the home to a junior team since 2014. History is one thing, though, and culture another.

Donovan and his friends all played hockey as kids, but with just two rinks in a metro area nearly the size of Milwaukee, opportunities are limited. Larry Donovan, Matt's father, grew up in the Boston area and became an advocate for the game in his adopted home, but he is only one man in an area where college football is king.

“I’m hoping that me making it creates a little more buzz and gets more kids involved in it and keeps kids involved in it," Donovan said. "Once they start, they love it.”

Then it was on to Europe, where the ice is larger and the game more free-flowing, the organization was welcoming and the skill level high. One of Donovan’s teammates his two seasons there was Rasmus Dahlin, the top pick in last year’s NHL draft.

“(I thought) I’d be in North America again, but it kind of just happened that a team in Sweden called and there was an opportunity to play and make decent money,” Donovan said. “The goal going over there was always to go over there and get better and come back and play in the NHL again.”

To that end, after two seasons abroad he signed a one-year AHL deal with the Admirals.

Donovan, whose most productive AHL season included 14 goals, tallied six in October as Milwaukee jumped out to an 8-1-2 start. He tailed off statistically in November – as did the Admirals – but Donovan has played in all 22 games, leads the team in scoring (16 points) and is tied for the most goals (eight) and game-winning goals (two).

The Admirals (13-6-3), who lead the AHL's Central Division, meet the Texas Stars (9-9-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.

“We expected him to be a big piece of our team this year,” Admirals coach Karl Taylor said of Donovan. “As far as the production side, he’s probably ahead of the curve.

“Has he been fortunate? I think that’s fair to say. But all his goals have been very good shots. It’s not like it’s been bouncing off some guy’s leg or something.”

Donovan’s performance in October also earned him a raise, security and upward mobility sooner than he expected. Hustling to keep him in the organization, the Predators signed Donovan to a two-year, two-way contract that this season is worth $162,500 at the AHL level and $650,000 at the NHL level.

Before he signed his AHL deal with the Admirals and after he came back from Sweden, Donovan started a company to help generate funds to support youth hockey in Oklahoma City. He offers summer camps and private lessons and sells apparel with a logo of an oversize, apelike creature wielding a hockey stick.